Irish liberals need to hold their noses. After all, they won't catch a dose of misogyny or alt-right by cosying up to a germophobe

It is fair to say that at this stage in our obsession with talking about Donald Trump as if we matter, that we have become like a bunch of priests. We are high on our own sanctimonious finger-wagging. We surely reached some kind of peak tut-tuttage last Thursday when we managed to get indignant about the fact that he may have conflicts of interest around his business. We paraded various academics out in the media to tell us why Trump should sell off all his assets. (Factoid, the last outsider and scourge of the elite who became president, Jimmy Carter, didn't sell his peanut farm. He gave it to his mother and his brother).

It is fair to say that at this stage in our obsession with talking about Donald Trump as if we matter, that we have become like a bunch of priests. We are high on our own sanctimonious finger-wagging. We surely reached some kind of peak tut-tuttage last Thursday when we managed to get indignant about the fact that he may have conflicts of interest around his business. We paraded various academics out in the media to tell us why Trump should sell off all his assets. (Factoid, the last outsider and scourge of the elite who became president, Jimmy Carter, didn't sell his peanut farm. He gave it to his mother and his brother).

We are becoming addicted to virtue in this country. It has even infected the insular echo-chamber nature of politics in the North, previously impervious to the modern world and obsessed with its own 'situation'. Sinn Fein's opportunistic calling of an election started off by being about the so-called Cash for Ash scandal. Then it seemed to become about the Irish language, then about teaching the DUP a lesson and taking them down a peg or two for their arrogance.

Then, by Friday, Michelle O'Neill, being touted (I use that word in the general sense, not in its Northern Ireland meaning) as the new leader of SF in NI, was telling Morning Ireland, that what it was, in fact, about was the DUP attitude towards women and the LGBT community. It used to be 'don't hit me - I've got the peace process in my arms'. Now the best way to become a sacred cow in Ireland is to reference LGBT people and women.

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